Soul Revival

First there's the crystalline guitar lick, accompanied by a sizzling cymbal strike. Then a horn section hurtles in like a house party. By the time the backbeat drops and Sam Moore starts singing, if you’re not bobbing your head and tapping your toe, if you’re not surrendering to a full-tilt boogie, you clearly haven’t turned it up loud enough.

And that’s just ‘‘Soul Man.’’

Stax Records had plenty more where that Sam & Dave classic came from, scoring 167 Billboard Top 100 pop hits and 243 R&B charters in its 18-year existence.

‘‘Green Onions,’’ ‘‘Theme from Shaft,’’ ‘‘I’ll Take You There,’’ and ‘‘(Sittin’ on) The Dock of the Bay’’ were the aural embodiment of the Memphis label’s iconic finger-snapping logo. When you slapped down a single or album with that trademark on the player, a soul-stirring good time was guaranteed.

To celebrate the 50th anniversary of Stax, Concord Music Group is not only putting out a series of digitally remastered reissues and compilations, like Tuesday’s inaugural two-disc ‘‘Stax 50: A 50th Anniversary Celebration,’’ but is relaunching the imprint with a roster of new artists.

The mission is twofold: to extend the considerable musical legacy of the label, and to continue spreading Stax’s unstated but mighty real message of racial integration through sweet soul music. But in a climate dominated by glossy pop, synth-heavy soul, and hard-edged rap, can Concord bring that Stax snap back?

‘‘Absolutely. I think they’re hungry, I think they’re ready, and I think they’re brave,’’ says new signee Angie Stone.

A known quantity with three gold albums to her credit, the South Carolina singer-songwriter possesses a forceful, church-honed alto, an abiding love and gift for Southern soul, and a lyrical viewpoint that has one eye on matters of the heart and the other on matters of contemporary society. She is, in short, a child of Stax.

Stone is exactly the kind of artist Al Bell, former Stax executive vice president and co-owner, says he would have snapped up during the label’s 1961-1975 run. (For its first four years Stax was known as Satellite). ‘‘No question about it. From early signs, they’re headed in the right direction,’’ says Bell.

Other announced signings include original Stax pillar Isaac Hayes, jam jazzers Soulive, and Leon Ware, respected writer of hits for Marvin Gaye and the Jackson Five. Stone is an established name who found herself without major label backing. But the revived Stax also plans to introduce new artists, including former Erykah Badu backing vocalist N’Dambi.

‘‘There’ll be a whole spectrum of artists,’’ says John Burk, executive vice president and head of A&R for the label. ‘‘The key thing is, do they really get the history of Stax?’’

Artists and executives associated with Stax celebrated the past and discussed the future at a press conference for the Memphis Convention and Visitor’s Bureau’s ‘‘50 Years of Soul’’ campaign at B.B. King’s in New York in January.

‘‘I get asked all the time, ‘What was the success of Stax Records?’and it’s really hard to define except for one thing: teamwork,’’ says Steve Cropper, who, as guitarist for Booker T. and the MG’s, played on a laundry list of Stax hits and co-wrote such classics as Otis Redding’s ‘‘Dock of the Bay’’ and Eddie Floyd’s ‘‘Knock on Wood.’’

That team included Cropper, fellow MGs Booker T. Jones, bassist Donald ‘‘Duck’’ Dunn, drummer Al Jackson, and songwriters Hayes and David Porter. While Hayes, of course, had hits of his own, including ‘‘Hot Buttered Soul’’ and ‘‘Theme From Shaft,’’ he and Porter wrote a mess of songs for their labelmates, including Sam & Dave’s ‘‘Hold On, I’m Coming’’ and ‘‘Soul Man’’ and Mable John’s proto-feminist anthem ‘‘Your Good Thing (Is About to End).’’

Deanie Parker, a former Stax publicist and current president of the Soulsville Foundation in Memphis, recalls with a laugh that early Stax artist Rufus Thomas used to call the crew ‘‘young and loose and full of juice.’’ And she says, ‘‘it was the juice everybody wanted.’’

Indeed, the influence of the Stax sound, like the sweeter pop of their friendly competitors to the north at Motown, was immediate and far-reaching.

Everyone from the Rolling Stones to Cream, from the MC5 to Lisa Simpson has covered Stax songs. Funk titans like Prince and George Clinton transformed the sound. The neo-soul movement copped its rootsy feel. And literally hundreds of hip-hop and soul artists have sampled Stax tracks famous and unfamiliar to create hits, including Will Smith’s ‘‘Gettin’ Jiggy Wit It,’’ Salt ’N Pepa’s ‘‘Whatta Man,’’ and Mariah Carey’s ‘‘Dreamlover.’’

Besides the music, what was notable about the Stax team was its complete integration behind the scenes and on its roster, which was predominantly African-American but included the multi-racial MG’s, the white rock group Big Star, and MOR crooner Glenn Yarbrough. The desire to seek commonality in the 1960s South was risky enough, but that spirit spilled into the messages of songs and made an impression on other artists coming up in Stax’s wake.

‘‘It meant everything to me because it was an opportunity to get black music on the radio, and music of that era was very important for the evolution,’’ says Earth, Wind & Fire mastermind Maurice White, a Memphis native who grew up a few blocks from the converted movie theater on McLemore Avenue that served as Stax’s studio and headquarters.

‘‘When you look at it historically it was certainly a bridge between the races,’’ says Norman Lear, legendary creator of such television shows ‘‘All in the Family,’’ ‘‘The Jeffersons,’’ and ‘‘Maude.’’ ‘‘The first time [the races] mixed thoroughly was through soul, and Memphis was where all of that began. This was not pockets of black and pockets of white. This was white and black thoroughly mixed in the music and in their lives together.’’

Lear bought Concord Music Group — which includes the Prestige Jazz label among others — in 1999 and acquired the Stax label through the purchase of Fantasy Records in 2004. Fantasy, home of Creedence Clearwater Revival, had acquired the assets of Stax when the label was folded in 1975. (Although they had assets north of $70 million at the time according to Al Bell, three of its creditors were able to force the label into involuntary bankruptcy).

While soul performers have struggled to get airplay alongside more hip-hop or pop-influenced peers like Beyonce and Usher, Billboard magazine’s Geoff Mayfield is optimistic that the Stax future might be as sunny as the past.

‘‘There’s still a lot of radio audience for the classic Stax music, frequently it’s sampled, it’s used in film,’’ he says. ‘‘But more than that I would say if you look at some of Corinne Bailey Rae’s songs, if you look at John Legend, there have been some recent success stories in artist development that would suggest that there is an appetite for this kind of music.’’

He points to Concord’s success with the Grammy-winning Ray Charles record ‘‘Genius Loves Company’’ as a sign that the label’s commitment to new approaches can pay off.

‘’I have a suspicion that they’re building a business plan that doesn’t necessitate multiplatinum success for each album for it to work,’’ Mayfield says.

Re-signee Isaac Hayes, for one, is grateful at the offer to return to the home of his greatest success. ‘‘It means somebody’s thinking about me, and I appreciate another chance to speak out,’’ he said in New York.

Following ‘‘Stax 50,’’ the label plans to release Stone’s album, entitled ‘‘The Art of Love and War,’’ in June. Although he suffered what he termed a health ‘‘setback’’ last year, Hayes expects to release his new album in the fall.

First, though, comes ‘‘Interpretations,’’ a tribute to Maurice White on March 27. The album will feature a range of artists — including Chaka Khan, Kirk Franklin, and Stone — covering Earth, Wind & Fire songs.

‘‘It’s really weird,’’ says White with a laugh. ‘‘When I started out, I couldn’t get on Stax because I was too young. [To] wind up on Stax ... that’s really something.’’

Sarah Rodman can be reached at rodman@globe.com